Matthew Burdette committed suicide over a viral video, parents say

Answers sought in teen's suicide

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SAN DIEGO - A San Diego family said a video taken of their son in a school bathroom went viral and he was bullied so badly over it that he committed suicide.

The family turned to Team 10 to tell their story after getting stonewalled by the school. Their son killed himself in November.

Matthew Burdette's family described the 14-year-old as happy, popular and active.

"I said to my brother first thing, this little boy has a twinkle in his eye. He just loved life," said his aunt, Laura Burdette Mechak.

Mechak agreed to talk to Team 10 about her nephew. Matthew's parents were too distraught to tell their story on camera.

His parents said something happened to the boy at his high school that changed everything.

"They told me that Matthew had killed himself. I fell on the floor, devastated. I never saw it coming," said Mechak.

The family said the boy left a letter.

"He said, I can't do school anymore. I have no friends. I don't want to kill myself but I have no friends," said Mechak.

His aunt and father brought the letter to University City High School to talk to school officials.

"We asked them specifically to please help us figure out what happened," said Mechak.

She said school officials wouldn't tell them anything about what may have caused Matthew to hate school.

"Kids came forward to help them figure out what was going on," said Mechak.

Matthew's friends told his parents about a video. They said a classmate had peered over a bathroom stall and recorded Matthew while he was at school.

They said that student then posted it on Snapchat, Vine and other sites claiming he caught Matthew masturbating.

"It went viral. It went beyond his school. It went to other schools in California. Kids in the neighborhood who didn't go to Matthew's school had heard about it and seen the video that was taken of him," said Mechak.

Allison Worden of Gomez Trial Attorneys represents the family.

"Kids saw this video and began to tease Matthew mercilessly -- they teased him, they harassed him. They made his life miserable over a two-week period," said Mechak.

His family said it was after those two weeks of bullying that Matthew took his life.

His parents went back to University City High School. They said the district knew about the video because they had launched an internal investigation.

The Burdettes said the school would not tell them if the student who had shot the video and posted it on social media outlets was disciplined.

"No one would provide them with answers," said Worden.

Worden believes the school district failed Matthew on many levels. She said a teacher had kicked the boy out of class for eating sunflower seeds and sent him out with no direction on where to go.

Worden said this left Matthew to wander the halls and end up in the bathroom.